Internet content has for the most part been offered free of cost to end-users, with revenue generated in many instances through the self-advertising that the content provider receives through a large numbers of “hits” on his site. Alternatively, revenue is generated through the advertising of third parties that is placed directly on the content provider's Web pages in banner ads or pop-up/under advertising. With advertising revenues falling and failing to support the content provider's ability to deliver content free-of-charge to end-users, many content providers have begun charging end-users directly for delivering content to them. Credit cards are the only popular online payment method currently being used, but are rarely used for transactions of $5 or less due to their high overhead. This creates a problem for many content providers whose product cost is too high to be supported by advertising, but too low to be charged to credit cards.
Use of subscriptions that enable an end-user unlimited access over a fixed term to a particular content provider's Web site is more cost effective for credit card payment methodologies where the credit-card charge exceeds $10. Various content providers such as The Wall Street Journal and Consumers Reports offer annual subscriptions for fixed rates. Advantageously, the use of subscriptions enables the end-user to have a fixed cost associated with accessing content from these content providers' Web sites and provides a relatively predictable source of revenue to the content provider. Disadvantageously, however, if an end-user subscribes to several subscription-based sites, his budget for accessing premium Internet content may be exhausted, making access to other sites of interest monetarily infeasible. As a result, many end-users may find the effectiveness and attractiveness of the Internet as the mechanism for providing access to information content severely diminished. A further disadvantage of subscription-based systems is that they are inconvenient in that they often require an end-user to log on and authenticate himself for each Web session.
Various systems have been introduced that have attempted to deal with simplifying end-user authentication and/or payment-for-content. For example, the Microsoft® .NET Passport system (see, e.g., http://www.passport.com) provides a mechanism for authenticating an end-user to many different sites which subscribe to the .NET Passport service. An end-user after registering his profile information with the .NET Passport system thereafter need only provide his email address and his single .NET Passport password in order to obtain access to a subscribing site. An end-user can also make purchases, or can download cost-associated Internet content, from subscribing sites without actively having to provide his credit card information. Rather, that information is provided in encrypted form to the subscribing site by the .NET Passport system from the information in that requesting end-user's stored profile. In order to interact with the NET Passport system, however, content providers must install special software at their sites. MoreMagic™ (see, e.g., http://www.moremagic.com) offers a content-payment solution for wireless data transactions. In order to participate in a MoreMagic pay-for-content program, a content provider must install a custom hardware component at each of its sites between each content Web server and its Internet connection. Similarly, an iPIN™ system (see, e.g., http://www.ipin.com) provides for payment processing for service providers, content providers and portals. As with .NET Passport, consumers create an iPIN account and a subscribing content provider is provided with custom software that is installed on its content Web sites. Through this software, consumers enter their iPIN identity on the content provider's site, and the software authenticates them and authorizes payments. Payment detail records are stored by iPIN. iPIN accounts can be linked to a number of different kinds of financial institutions, including banks, credit card companies, or network service providers. In the latter case, iPIN charges are billed through the billing system of the service provider, which acts merely as a bill collector.
Disadvantageously, these prior art systems require the content provider to install special-purpose hardware and/or software. Since several different payment systems may coexist and each requires special-purpose software or hardware, content providers may be unwilling or unable to install all of the necessary systems, or there may be incompatibilities among them. A payment system for Internet content that requires no special-purpose hardware/software for the content provider is therefore needed.
A payment system that requires no special-purpose hardware/software for the end user is also needed since requiring end-users to acquire or install such special-purpose hardware or software will likely be a barrier for acceptance of such a payment system.
Further, acceptance of a payment system also requires that the end-user's browsing experience proceed, for the most part, uninterrupted since requiring the end-user to explicitly authorize each individual transaction, particularly for frequent, low-cost transactions or for transactions in which there is a time dependency, will make the browsing experience frustrating.
A payment system, if it is to be widely adopted, must also be capable of being gradually introduced to allow the smooth transition to new payment technologies. Whereas today the vast majority of Internet sites do not charge for content and only a small number do, this situation may be reversed in the future as many sites that offer proprietary content begin to charge for that content. As this transition takes place there will be a mix of free sites and sites for which information content must be paid. Further, there are likely to always be some sites that will remain free. Moreover, each site for which payment for content access is required will likely have a mix of customers: some that use traditional subscriptions, and some that pay on a page-by-page basis for what may be anywhere from less than $0.01 to what could be several dollars or more depending upon the value placed on that information by the content provider. Accordingly, a payment system must be capable of handling transactions with all types of sites and all types of payment options for a wide range of transaction costs.
An additional requirement that a payment system must have in order to be accepted by both end-users and content providers is that security be ensured for both. Specifically, end-users must be assured that their accounts cannot be subject to unauthorized charges; content providers must be assured that they will receive the funds associated with each transaction; and end-users and content providers must both be assured that their transactions are private.